What is a cash flow waterfall?

A cash flow waterfall is a bar chart that walks from operating cash flow through capital expenditure to free cash flow, then shows how the remaining cash is allocated — acquisitions, buybacks, dividends, debt, and other financing — ending at the net change in cash. Each step is colour-coded: green bars add to the running total, red bars subtract.

How does Abbott Laboratories (ABT) spend its free cash flow?

For TTM through Q1 2026, Abbott Laboratories generated $9.46B of operating cash flow and $7.38B of free cash flow — a free cash flow margin of 78% of operating cash flow. The waterfall breaks down how the remaining cash was allocated across investing and financing activities.

How much did Abbott Laboratories (ABT) return via buybacks and dividends?

The waterfall shows buybacks (share repurchases) and dividends paid as separate steps in the financing section. Together these represent Abbott Laboratories's shareholder returns for TTM through Q1 2026. You can compare these against free cash flow to assess the capital-return payout ratio.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) Cash Flow Waterfall

Operating CF

$9.46B

Capex

-$2.09B

Free Cash Flow

$7.38B

FCF Margin

+78.0%

Cash flow waterfall for Abbott Laboratories (ABT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Free cash flow: $7.38B

Cash flow breakdown for Abbott Laboratories (ABT) — TTM through Q1 2026

Line item	Amount	Running total
Operating Cash Flow	$9.46B	$9.46B
Capital Expenditure	-$2.09B	$7.38B
Free Cash Flow	$7.38B	$7.38B
Acquisitions	-$19.9B	-$12.5B
Other Investing	-$287M	-$12.8B
Share Buybacks	-$793M	-$13.6B
Dividends Paid	-$4.19B	-$17.8B
Net Debt Change	$17.9B	$104M
Other Financing & FX	$167M	$271M
Net Cash Increase	$271M	$271M

Operating Cash Flow$9.46B
Capital Expenditure-$2.09B
Free Cash Flow$7.38B
Acquisitions-$19.9B
Other Investing-$287M
Share Buybacks-$793M
Dividends Paid-$4.19B
Net Debt Change$17.9B
Other Financing & FX$167M
Net Cash Increase$271M

Want to see what drove the FCF change?Free Cash Flow Bridge

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